"Muliebrity" was written by the Indian poet Sujata Bhatt and is based on one of Bhatt's own childhood memories. The poem's speaker can't stop thinking about a young girl she once saw gathering cow dung near a temple. The speaker sees beauty, power, and grace in the way that the girl went about her humble task, and uses vivid imagery to evoke all the contrasting sights and smells that surrounded her. "Muliebrity" means "womanhood" or "womanliness," and in using this word to title the poem, the speaker implies that this girl embodied such womanhood through the pride and strength she showed in her work. At the same time, the speaker stresses that she doesn't want to reduce the girl to a mere symbol or metaphor, because doing so would deny the girl her individuality and selfhood. In other words, the girl may have profoundly affected the speaker, but she wasn't working for the speaker's—or the reader's—edification. "Muliebrity" was included in Bhatt's 1988 collection Brunezim, written after the poet had immigrated with her family to the U.S.

• Read the full text of “Muliebrity”

• “Muliebrity” Summary

• “Muliebrity” Themes

  • 

    Womanhood and Selfhood

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-18
  • 

    The Nature of Memory

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-12
    • Lines 15-18

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Muliebrity”

  • Lines 1-4

    I have thought ...
    ... temple in Maninagar.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-7

    I have thought ...
    ... wet canna lilies,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-12

    the smell of ...
    ... and simultaneously –

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-14

    I have thought ...
    ... nice image –

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-18

    but most of ...
    ... of dung –

    

    

    

    

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• “Muliebrity” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “girl”
    • Line 2: “gathered”
    • Line 6: “her hands”
    • Line 7: “cow,” “dung,” “dust,” “canna”
    • Line 8: “clothes”
    • Line 9: “crows,” “wings which”
    • Line 10: “scoops”
    • Line 11: “smells surrounding,” “separately”
    • Line 12: “simultaneously”
    • Line 15: “greatness”
    • Line 16: “glistening”
    • Line 17: “particularly promising”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “cow,” “round”
    • Line 7: “dung,” “dust”
    • Line 8: “smell,” “breath,” “freshly,” “clothes”
    • Line 9: “crows,” “wings which,” “different”
    • Line 11: “me separately”
    • Line 12: “simultaneously”

  • Caesura

    

    

    

    

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    Where caesura appears in the poem:

    • Line 12: “simultaneously – I”
    • Line 14: “image – but”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “girl”
    • Line 2: “gathered,” “dung,” “wide,” “round”
    • Line 6: “her hands,” “her”
    • Line 7: “smell,” “cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies”
    • Line 8: “smell,” “monkey breath,” “freshly washed clothes”
    • Line 9: “dust,” “crows’ wings which smells different”
    • Line 10: “smell,” “cow,” “scoops”
    • Line 11: “up,” “all,” “smells surrounding me separately”
    • Line 12: “simultaneously”
    • Line 15: “greatness”
    • Line 16: “glistening,” “cheekbones”
    • Line 17: “each,” “particularly promising”
    • Line 18: “mound,” “dung”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “girl / who”
    • Lines 2-3: “basket / along”
    • Lines 3-4: “house / and”
    • Lines 5-6: “she / moved”
    • Lines 6-7: “waist / and”
    • Lines 8-9: “clothes / and”
    • Lines 10-11: “scoops / it”
    • Lines 11-12: “separately / and”
    • Lines 12-13: “much / but”
    • Lines 14-15: “unwilling / to”
    • Lines 15-16: “greatness / and”
    • Lines 16-17: “cheekbones / each”
    • Lines 17-18: “promising / mound”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-4: “the girl / who gathered cow-dung in a wide, round basket / along the main road passing by our house / and the Radhavallabh temple in Maninagar.”
    • Lines 7-9: “and the smell of cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies, / the smell of monkey breath and freshly washed clothes / and the dust from crows’ wings which smells different –”
    • Lines 15-18: “the greatness / and the power glistening through her cheekbones / each time she found a particularly promising / mound of dung –”

  • Polysyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where polysyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 7-10: “and the smell of cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies, / the smell of monkey breath and freshly washed clothes / and the dust from crows’ wings which smells different – / and again the smell of cow-dung”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 6: “her hands and her waist”
    • Line 7: “the smell of cow-dung”
    • Line 8: “the smell”
    • Line 9: “smells”
    • Line 10: “the smell of cow-dung”
    • Line 11: “smells”
    • Line 13: “unwilling,” “for a”
    • Line 14: “for a,” “unwilling”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-4
    • Lines 5-11
    • Lines 15-18

  • Anaphora

    

    

    

    

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    Where anaphora appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “I have thought so much about the girl”
    • Line 5: “I have thought so much about the way she”
    • Line 12: “ I have thought so much”

• “Muliebrity” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Muliebrity
  • Radhavallabh Temple in Maninagar
  • Canna Lilies
  • (Location in poem: )

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Muliebrity”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Muliebrity” Speaker

• “Muliebrity” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Muliebrity”

• More “Muliebrity” Resources

  • External Resources

    • An Interview with Bhatt — The poet discusses her childhood and how she came to be a writer.  

    • The Radhavallabh Temple — Check out the temple Bhatt mentions on Google Maps!

    • Bhatt Out Loud — Listen to recordings of Bhatt reading poems from Brunezim, the collection in which "Muliebrity" appears.

    • Hinduism and the Cow — An article discussing the Hindu religion's most sacred animal. 

    • Ahmedabad — Learn more about the city in which Bhatt grew up and saw the young girl in the poem (Maninagar is a neighborhood within Ahmedabad).

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Sujata Bhatt

    • Search For My Tongue

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